


The Amazing Fantasy of Arachnid

by Eric_Coldfire



Series: The Amazing Hero: Arachnid [2]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-18 01:39:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17571860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eric_Coldfire/pseuds/Eric_Coldfire
Summary: A new year begins as Kumo Hisashi, secretly known as The Amazing Hero: Arachnid, starts his semester at Academy X. With All Might having left for Japan to find a successor, crime is on the rise in the form of the secretive order of The Six who have begun to scour Manhattan in the hopes finding Arachnid and discovering the origin of his powers in their pursuits to weaponize Quirks for Villains and Criminals around the world.Sequel to The Amazing Hero: Arachnid.





	The Amazing Fantasy of Arachnid

You know who I am, but for those of you late to the show. Hi, my name is Kumo Hisashi, You might know me as a just your average Quirkless high school student. I survived a Villain attack last year that claimed the life of my aunt, she was my Hero, the driving force that pushed me into wanting to make up for my Quirklessness by building and designing Hero gears. But the attack that claimed her life transferred a portion of her Quirk into me and I wasn't Quirkless anymore. My powers gave me the strength and speed of a Spider as well as the ability to climb walls and some innate knowledge in how to craft a synthetic version of the webbing that my aunt Mei could make naturally with her Quirk.

Once I had a grasp on my powers, I tried to get vengeance for aunt Mei and it nearly cost me my life. Buried alive in the ruins of the lab where prototype Quirk transference technology was left to rot, by an enforcer to an organization I didn't know existed. I tried to go back to pretending I was Quirkless, to just stay back and let the Pro Heroes handle the Villains responsible for my powers and aunt Mei's death, but when push came to shove and the organization's experiments attacked, I found that I couldn't stand back and only watch. So I stepped up, joining a Pro Hero and his intern in fighting to halt the renegade experiment's rampage. Together we not only stopped the experiment but managed to save the victim trapped inside, but shortly after that I had to flee the scene or risk being found as an unregistered Quirk user.

My efforts didn't go completely unnoticed, after the attack I was approached by Excelsior, a semi-retired Hero mentor who trained my aunt Mei back when she attended Academy X, and All Might the number one Hero in the world. I told them my situation, and both agreed that it might be best if I continued to be mum about my newly acquired Quirk but also pointed out I would need proper training if I was set on becoming an unofficial Hero in order to fight this unseen Villain organization. As the first semester of my Junior year drew to a close I found out I was enrolled into Academy X under recommendation, probably by Excelsior, but rather than enter the Hero course I chose to apply to the Support course and keep my dream alive of building Hero gear.

Now that new semester was upon me, and I was on my way to begin my future.

"Hey, stop that guy!" I heard a man yell as a silver knuckled thief half ran half hobbled from a shop, hauling a bag over his shoulder.

I should mention, while I am mostly known as Kumo Hisashi, a Quirkless high school student about to start his first Spring semester at one of the most prestigious schools of New York, but that's not all who I am. A quick change out of my new school's uniform and a quick mask application from some of my own homemade web shooters, and I wasn't Kumo Hisashi any more. Some called me a reckless menace, others true Hero, but what I called myself was the Amazing Hero; Arachnid.

"Hey, knuckle dragger, I think you need a receipt for this." I called out, firing a line of webbing at the bag he was carrying and with a firm yank, pulled it out of his hand and into my own. "Don't worry, I'm sure this nice shop keeper will sort it out with your name and the number of your parole officer."

"Damn you, bug!" I heard before I managed to dodge a blast of seismic energy fired from the criminal's silver band over his knuckles.

The man's name was Sherman Hertz, and unbeknownst to him we met before, in fact I was the reason for his foot being in a brace. He tried to rob a store I was shopping at and took me hostage, but when help came, I took the opportunity trade my freedom from a few fractured bones in his foot. From my understanding after he was arrested back then, he managed to escape en route to the police station during the Monstrosity attack on Halloween, but apparently a busted foot wasn't enough to deter him from getting extra cash in the new year.

I kept myself on a street light, making sure I had the sky behind me so when Hertz shot at me he wouldn't hit any buildings when I dodged. Aiming my web shooter and squeezing the right pressure pads in my glove, I fired off a small ball of web that expanded to the size of a golf ball and nailed Kyle's braced foot. The reaction was as I expected, Kyle yelled and grabbed his foot with both hands allowing me to fire off more shots of webbing that held his hands in place, clutching his injured foot. A final shot of webbing held his uninjured foot to the ground, off balance Kyle fell backwards with a thud and a final shot of webbing over his mouth restrained the flow of obscenities.

Dropping down from the street light, I passed the bag of stolen cash back to the store clerk who was waiting by the door, "I think this belongs to you", I said casually to the clerk who looked taken aback but quietly turned back to his shop. It could've been my imagination, but it looked like the clerk shot me a dirty look before going into his store, which wouldn't surprise me. Despite what I've done around the neighborhood since I began actively using my powers as Arachnid, most people were still unsure how to react to me, but I tried to adhere to the basics on how to act as a Hero from Mei's teachings. When in doubt, follow All Might's example, be professional, polite, and put a citizen at ease with a smile or positive attitude.

Ducking back into an alley where I left my school bag and changed back into my Academy X uniform, I lightly jogged out of the alley to a bus stop, just in time to watch the bus disappear around the block. "Thanks, Hertz", I muttered under my breath as I ran after the bus only tapping into my enhanced strength when the coast was clear which wasn't often. I would like to say I caught the bus at another stop but that wasn't the case, and I ended up following the bus uptown towards the Academy itself.

The Academy looked like a massive Neoclassical styled mansion, under different and more spooky circumstances I would expect to find it full of zombies and doors locked by gems and absurd puzzles, but instead I would only find Superheroes in training and some of the most amazing Pro Heroes serving as teachers. Academy X was seven stories tall, supposedly the top floor was the staff's living quarters, the two floors below that were dorms for the students that lived on campus, and the four beneath that were class rooms for the four grades. Behind the Academy were a few open acres housing a track and field, an outdoor obstacle course, even a recreation area with basketball and tennis courts, and a pool. But the most interesting part of the Academy was what you couldn't see, supposedly underneath the school was a basement that stretched for miles, housing training centers for Quirks and Hero training as well as certified labs that could build Hero gear, and I couldn't wait to get at those labs.

Despite missing and chasing the bus, the Academy's grounds were covered with students all wearing uniforms identical to mine, navy blue jacket and slacks, white button up shirt, and a golden yellow necktie. Of course some students had their uniforms altered to accommodate their altered physiology due to their Quirks. Sprinkled amidst the crowds were students already in their equivalent of a gym uniform that looked something like a fighter pilot's jumpsuit moving to behind the Academy's fields, and even more of scattered sighting were the elite senior students wearing their iconic Academy X jackets.

Adjusting the grip of my bag on my shoulder, I managed my way through the crowds towards the front door of the Academy. Inside the first thing that caught my eye was a statue of a bird surrounded by fire, a phoenix rising from a perch over a plaque with the school's name, founder, founding date, and a Latin inscription. The ringing of a bell snapped my attention to the front desk to find where my homeroom was or at the very least orientation, but finding the rooms weren't as easy as finding the front desk. The interior of the Academy was just as massive as the outside, and no matter how I ran through the halls, I could not find my assigned room and none of the rooms matched the number I was given.

"Need help finding your class?" A familiar voice asked, "oh hey it's you."

It was her, Jackpot, and suddenly the tie I was wearing felt very tight around my neck. "Uh, yeah, Kumo. It's my first day", I felt myself say stupidly. "You're Jackpot."

She giggled, brushing her crimson hair behind her ear, "Jackpot is my name in costume, out of costume my name is Marjolaine Wildman, but that's usually a mouthful for some people so MJ will do." She leaned over, looking at the slip of paper I was holding. "Sub-Level 2 Support, awesome. Yeah, it can be a little confusing to navigate the school. You need to find find one of the elevators, take it two floors down and you should see Doctor McCoy's lab."

I tried not to look too uncomfortable from how close she was standing to me in order to read my directions, but boy did she look as good in the school's uniform as she did in costume. Her uniform was similar to mine, only instead of navy blue slacks, she wore a navy blue pleated mini skirt with navy blue leggings. I probably would've said or done something really stupid, had I not seen MJ walk over to what I thought was an ornate wall and open it up to reveal a cylindrical elevator. "Whoa, and just when I thought this wouldn't be a mansion full of secret labs, zombies, and gem puzzles", my comment got another giggle out of her.

"It takes a bit to get used to, I was overwhelmed when I first got enrolled two years ago." Marjolaine said as she showed me a panel next to the elevator, that blended into the ornate wooden wall's decor but still showed school's signature X symbol. "So these are sprinkled around the school, you just tap this and the elevator opens up and you can get a ride down to the sub-levels or up to as far as the sixth floor but only if you're registered to a dorm room. Don't worry about the seventh floor, only the teachers and registered Pro Heroes are allowed up there."

Before I could inquire more, the bell rang, signalling the final warning to late students to hurry up and get to class. "Damn, I'm already late. Thanks for the help, Jackpo, Marjola, MJ. I guess I'll see you around."

Marjolaine smiled and waved at me as I stepped into the elevator, "sure thing", she said as she turned to jog down the hall, "I'll catch you around lunch maybe."

"Sounds great", I replied as I hit the button for the second sub-level only for it to dawn on me as the doors closed and MJ disappeared from sight, "wait, I don't know where the cafeteria is." I slumped against the wall of the elevator as it made it's descent, when the elevator opened a few seconds later, I was not expecting the sight before me.

Outside of the elevator were smoothed silver metal plated walls and floors, and like upstairs there were signs marking rooms as labs and one of them was marked as the one which would be my homeroom as well as the classroom that would be the doorway into making Hero gear. Taking a deep breath to steel my nerves, I stepped through the doorway into my classroom.

"Hisashi, Kumo?" asked who I assumed was the teacher, Doctor McCoy. He was dressed similarly to the male student uniform only instead of a navy blue jacket he wore a white lab coat. His Quirk was also fairly obvious, due to his head being feline shaped as well as his hands being furred and clawed.

"Y-yes, sir," I said nervously but the doctor turned back to what I assumed was his roll call sheet.

"Not the best impression for a student on recommendation to be late for his first day of attendance," the teacher said as he pointed a clawed finger to the back of the classroom at a two seated desk where a single student sat. "Take a seat next to Mister Stacy and we can begin."

As excited as I was to be finally attending my favorite Hero school, turns out the awkward first day was the same no matter what school you could go to. Trying to ignore the heat in my face, I made my way to the assigned seat, taking in the sights as my moved. The room was like a mix of science lab and metal shop class, ten desks had two students each, boys and girls from varying ages of mid teens who enrolled instead of traditional high school and early to mid twenties year olds who most likely enrolled after graduating traditional high school. The student pointed out as 'Mister Stacy' was meticulously arranging their notebooks and writing utensils, giving me only a short contempt look as I sat down next to him. Mister Stacy had slicked back blond hair and light blue eyes that darted between his notebook and Doctor McCoy, he was about the same age as me, and given how overly prepared he was for class compared to the other students it was also likely he transferred at the start of the semester the same as me.

Taking out my own notebook and mechanical pencil, I felt my nerves beginning to relax as Doctor McCoy finished his roll call and turned to address the class.

"To those of you returning, welcome back. To the sprinkling of new faces in my class, my name is Doctor Philip McCoy, I will be both your homeroom and Support course teacher. In this class, we will build everything that many Heroes take for granted. A costume that catches the public's eye, the technology that keeps them alive, and the equipment that allows them to save lives. This class and course will prepare you to do this professionally at companies such as Stark Enforcements and Oz Industries and as you advance in this course, you will soon be held up to those company's standards." Doctor McCoy's gaze held on me for a split second before he continued to address the class, "if you joined the Support Course to seek glory in the same sense as those who want to be Pro Heroes, you may want to leave now and save yourself the disappointment. The Support course's role is just that, support. You will receive the bare minimum of basic combat, rescue and Quirk training, and any field work will be done to test what you build in this lab or in drills to repair a member of the Hero course's equipment in a mock combat scenario. Think of this as Theater Tech, the Hero course may get the stage and the spotlight, but you're the reason the show goes off without a hitch."

It may have just been an assumption on my part that Doctor McCoy was addressing this to me due to me being registered as Quirkless and entering Academy X by recommendation, but I didn't want to build Hero equipment to make a ton of money nor to be famous, I'm doing this because I'm good at it and it could help people. It wouldn't make a difference to explain this, so my only option was to do it.

One thing I wasn't prepared for was how drastically different the class scheduling was in a Hero school compared to ordinary high school, normally there would be eight or nine classes spread out during the day and each one lasting about forty-five minutes, but that wasn't the case in a Hero school. The first hour of class was dedicated to a recap of last semester to refresh the returning students and bring the new students up to speed of what would be expected of them, and honestly, it was a bit intimidating seeing the projects made by the more experienced students. After that the class was moved to a sub-level training room where the new students were given gym uniforms and basic physical and Quirk assessment tests, and with some restraint I managed to pass off as 'average' for the physical. My desk mate, whose first name turned out to be Max, also placed fairly average in the basic physical but he did well with the Quirk assessment due to his Cloning Quirk, whenever he finished a test he would clone a fresh limb for the next test and be unfatigued.

Two hours of testing later, the new students were allowed to rest while the returning students demo'd their projects, fire suppression drones, restraining foam, impact resistant body armor and other gear you'd expect to see in a Hero's line of work. Even some of the new students had something to present, Max included, which made me have second thoughts of not presenting my webshooters but I knew it would be safer to build fresh rather than have anything tied to a known Vigilante. I'll be honest, it wasn't a great look for me at the end of class. I was the only one in class entered by recommendation, I had no pre-built projects to present, I had no Quirk, and my presented physical abilities were average at best. If nobody thought much of me before hand, I didn't win any friends at this point.

Once we changed out of our gym uniforms, everyone filed out to head to lunch taking various elevators or braving the indirect routes of the escalators back to the surface. It took some guess work to follow the crowd and find the cafeteria on the ground floor flooded with students, many of which had collected their food and went to the outdoor lounge to escape the crowds. Once in line, I found out why the crowds were so huge and why the home lunches were so few and far between, the food looked actually edible. Now I don't mean to knock ordinary high school's food, but in my experience a lot of food in public schools were simply 'passable' at best, but that wasn't the case here. All of the food coming out of the cafeteria looked amazing, more so since some of the local fast food chains were charging non-school made lunches for extra variety, although with most of my allowance going to web fluid I had to settle for school's standard food which for once wasn't too bad.

With a lunch tray loaded with a plain cheeseburger, fries, and a bottle of water, I went outside to find a quiet spot to settle down and eat when I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

"Hey, late boy, over here!" It was Marjolaine, waving to me from one of the patio tables and she wasn't alone. Sitting across from MJ was a muscular young man with his back to me who had shoulder length jet black hair tied in a loose ponytail, and sitting next to him was my desk mate in the Support course, Max.

Well, a small group of familiar faces was better than furthering my isolation after my less than stellar first impression in class, so I went to sit next to Marjolaine. "Hey, MJ. Uh, how's it going?"

"Not bad, it feels good to be back in class", she said in between bites of her own burger. "How's your first day going, Kumo?"

Unwrapping my cheeseburger, I gave an honest shrug, "it's taking some getting used to. I knew Academy X would be a bit overwhelming but I wasn't expecting the scale of what would be in store for me. But I'm up to the challenge, all I need is a chance to prove it."

"An interesting way to prove you deserve a place in this school", said Max who didn't even bother to lift his eyes from his food to address me, "you were entered into this esteemed Academy by recommendation, yet you arrive late, you don't have an invention to show your creativity, and you don't even have a Quirk. Academy X may turn out great Heroes but it doesn't make great Heroes out of nothing, something must form a basis for that greatness."

"Being a little harsh, aren't you, Maxie?" It took me a second to find where that second female voice came from only to realize the tall and muscular 'boy' sitting across from Marjolaine was a girl. She had a very pretty face with grey eyes, and even through she wore her uniform's jacket it was easy to see how well toned and muscular she was. "I remember you being a nervous wreck when you got your acceptance letter."

"I was nervous yes, Vee, because I worked to earn my spot in Doctor McCoy's lab," retorted Max, his face flushed slightly. "It wasn't handed to me."

The girl nudged Max with her elbow lightly, "don't mind him, he's just sore he didn't earn recommendation despite his parent's influence." The girl have me a short wave, "Veronica Sawyer, I'm MJ's tag partner in the Hero course."

Suddenly I felt very confused, "wait, I thought the Hero schools allowed for multiple students to be entered by recommendations?"

"That's true," said Marjolaine, "but due to the massive number of Hero Agencies in the city, it's become a bit of a strain for the number of schools to keep up with the major influences recommending students so the school implemented a restriction to that number."

Veronica nodded, "yep, and in X's case that means only four recommendations, one per grade level, in all courses except for General Studies."

"Oh, so I got the only Junior spot in the Support course?" Suddenly I felt very bad, Max clearly worked hard to get into the Academy, he even had a project to present in the form of his fire extinguishing capsules. I had nothing, but it's not like I asked for a recommendation, I was fully intent on applying like any normal student.

Marjolaine nudged me with her elbow, "cheer up, Kumo. Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look or act like you're filthy rich, so there's no way you bought your way into this school. Unlike 'some' students." Reaching in front of me, she grabbed a few of my fries, "so that means, if you got into a Hero school by recommendation you really impressed someone and they think you deserve to be here so you need to do your best to prove them right."

I wanted to believe that as I ate my lunch in quiet contemplation while those around me carried their own conversations, but my mind kept swimming with doubts. Doubts of whether or not I belonged here aside though, MJ, Veronica, and Max were good people and they definitely deserved to be here. Max may have had a chip on his shoulder but he had some high standards to live up to thanks to his parents. Like Marjolaine, Veronica also joined Academy X mostly to train herself in controlling her Quirk more than to be a Hero, apparently she wanted to be a journalist.

They all had goals to achieve but what did I have, I wanted to build Hero gear and now I could, I didn't care too much about having a Quirk but now I have one. I can't just pretend to have developed a Quirk suddenly as a 'late bloomer' and I can't keep pretending to be Quirkless for too long without it coming out by accident. I felt my heart steadily pick up it's pace as my breathing began to slow down, the edge of my vision began to darken until I felt a hand on my shoulder lightly shake me.

Marjolaine lightly shook my shoulder, pointing behind Max and Veronica, "guys, check it out. It's A Squad's superstars!"

MJ was pointing at a pair of teenage boys about my age, one wearing the school's uniform while the other was dressed in casual clothes and wore the school's signature jacket. They didn't seem all that special but judging from MJ's reaction, I guess they were special students in the Hero course, although Veronica didn't share the sentiment.

"It's just Jason and Peter, MJ. They're not rock stars", Veronica interjected "we've seen them almost every school day for the past three years now."

"You didn't hear, Vee? They won the district's drawing during the winter break." Max even seemed to take notice of these two, "if they can pass the written and practical test over the other candidates, they're going to UA."

The mention of UA was enough to grab my attention back to Earth, "wait, so they pass a couple of tests and they go can to the number one Hero School in the world? Like to visit or attend?" I asked, steadily feeling myself calm down.

"I dunno", said Marjolain, suddenly sounding very bored with the topic of the two 'superstars' she pointed out. "Whenever anyone asks them out it, they don't give an answer. Peter dodges the question with a joke and Jason suddenly realizes he's busy or late somewhere and runs off. So weird."

"It's possible they signed some kind of nondisclosure agreement", said Max "if they're going to visit it probably for security reasons, but if they're going attend, I guess it wouldn't be good publicity for UA to fill in the gaps of its student body with students from another country." Max leaned in closer to the table so not to be overheard, "rumor has it that UA lost an entire classroom worth's of students last year to burn out and had to expel them for falling behind. Apparently, the only thing harder than getting into UA is staying in UA."

Resuming the rest of my lunch, I watched the two 'superstar' students chat away as they went to their own lunch spot. Weirdest thing to me was they both seemed so casual despite the pressure they could've been under, and here I was, freaking out on my first day in Academy X.

The rest of the lunch period passed by uneventfully, Max and I went to the last classes in our schedule, three forty-five minute long non-Support related classes which covered the usual school related subjects like mathematics, English literature, and history. Before I knew it, the day was over and students were released either to attend after school activities or return home. I survived my first day at Academy X and only suffered some mild embarrassment, light discomfort, and a small panic attack.

Luckily the bus ride and walk to my home neighborhood wasn't as eventful as the commute to the school. No robberies, no car thefts, not even a cat stuck in tree which I was grateful for. With the way my mind was flooded with questions and doubts, I wasn't sure if I could keep up Arachnid's upbeat attitude. By this point in the late afternoon I knew Uncle Ben wouldn't be home, but someone else was waiting for me, someone I hadn't seen since last year.

"Excelsior? What are you doing here?" I asked, picking up the pace to join him by the front gate.

The Hero Mentor was dressed in a casual suit and coat, he waved to me as I called out to him. "Came to hear how your first day of Hero School went," Excelsior said, "though I'm surprised you used my recommendation to apply to the Support course and not the Hero course. Especially when you agreed to get training."

I hung my head, "I thought if I focused on my gear and tech building goal, I could maybe forgo the heavy training if I just stayed a small time or strictly neighborhood Hero." Readjusting the shoulder strap on my backpack, I sat down on the waist high fence to my house, trying to avoid meeting the Hero Mentor's eyes and seeing the possibility of disappointment. "After that first day, I don't even know if I can handle Support much less full on Hero training."

"Understandable from someone with two minds of the subject. The Quirkless prodigy at home in a workshop verses the newly empowered Vigilante wanting to help wherever he may be needed. That double life is hard, hence why it went out of fashion when Heroing became a nine to five." Excelsior checked the screen on his phone, I could just make out some news headline in what looked like Japanese before he slipped it back into his coat pocket, "so who'd you get in Support, Darkholme?"

I shook my head, "Doctor McCoy." The answer seemed to please Excelsior.

"That's good, he's give you a fair shake before he decides on if he wants to expel you or not." Apparently I made a face that got a laugh out of the old man, "don't be so shocked," he said. "A lot of teachers in Hero schools have been Pro Heroes for so long that they can just look at a fresh faced and bushy tailed student sitting at a desk, and just know they don't have any potential to be in that class and," he quickly swiped his thumb across his throat and made a 'fwip' sound "gone and out the door."

As much as I thought I knew Hero schools, as it turned out my childhood fantasy idea of them was a night and day difference compared to the real thing. "So, should I just give up on my tech dreams and just transfer to the Hero course?"

"You jumped ship from the Support course after an overwhelming first day and want to switch classes? Not the best idea, leaves a bad impression on Dr. McCoy and whoever you get pushed into." Excelsior checked his phone again, "plus why would a Quirkless kid from Support want to be in the Hero course? Wouldn't that cause a bunch of questions to be raised, how a young man who survived a villain attack with stolen Quirk transference technology is suddenly now a 'late bloomer' with a Quirk? Especially since that kind of experimentation was considered to be a dead end years ago."

I shook my head, burying my head in my hands. Of course I couldn't reveal that Quirk Transference was real and I was living proof it was possible, but wait. I looked up at the Hero Mentor, "you said you wanted me to be in the Hero course for training, but also think I should stay in Support pretending to be Quirkless?"

Excelsior's smile was bright and genuine as he sat next to me, "I think it's important to have a singular focused goal rather than multiple goals with a divided focus." He sat down next to me on the fence, "All Might and I tried to tell you, but now that you've had a taste of what to expect, have got any idea of what you want to focus on?"

I wanted to rack my brain and bounce back and forth between my options, but I finally knew or at least had an idea what I wanted to do and it wasn't what I needed to do. "I want to use my powers to help others, and it's driving me nuts to have this power and not being able to use it," I took a deep breath and exhaled, "but you and All Might were and still are right. I need to focus on gear building, it'll be safer for me and Uncle Ben." Excelsior seemed pleased with my answer, but there was something I had to address. "But, I'm not just going to ignore cries for help when I hear them, I can't."

Excelsior let out a sigh, "that's fair, kid. A Hero protects people from trouble, but he doesn't go looking for trouble. Remember that, and it'll keep you from falling in with the Vigilantes." Excelsior drew out his phone and swiped through some of the newest Hero News articles, "that being said, you need to be careful how you deal with villains on your own."

When I saw the article my heart sank, "due to the intervention of a 'violent' Vigilante, Sherman Hertz is being released from the hospital and police custody? I stopped him committing armed robbery and he gets a slap on the wrist?"

"Violent Crimes committed with Quirks carry some harsh consequences, so criminals had to get smarter with how they could break the law. Using a gun or the threat of a Quirk can easily shave years off prison time. What's worse is if a criminal is caught by a nonlicensed Quirk user or unregistered Hero, the police cannot legally detain the criminal." Excelsior looked at the photo of the article, Sherman Hertz webbed to the ground, his hands immobilized and stuck to the cast on his foot. "Nice work by the way. No collateral damage, no bystanders were injured, criminal was restrained with minimal injury. If you were an official Hero, this would be great debut."

"Yeah, but for the first of my exploits to make the news, it sucks that it's on a sour note or being painted to look like that." I tried to help people as far back as November, I didn't actively seek out crimes to stop but I tried to help out where I could. A family pet stuck in park tree here, a lost tourist needing directions there, the most danger I ever saw before my encounter with Hertz this morning was in December when I stopped a kitchen fire from getting out of control.

"That's just the way it is, Vigilantes are vilified and random acts of kindness are brushed aside because they're not as interesting as the new Hero on the block stopping a new Villain." Excelsior stood up and pocketed his phone, "don't worry too much about it, kid. Rumor has it because so many criminals in America are taking advantage of these loopholes, the Quirk Laws are about to face some revisions, so maybe by the time you become an official Hero, you won't have to worry about." The Hero Mentor adjusted the collar of his coat as he turned to face me, "but don't worry about all that, just focus on school, Arachnid. There'll be plenty of time for you to be living on the edge, fighting crime, and spinning webs later."

I caught myself smiling at Excelsior's rhyme, and he was right, school had to come first plus a better understanding of Quirk laws and Hero procedure couldn't hurt either. "Thanks for the advice, Excelsior. I'll focus on Support, and I think I even know how to put myself in a better position in class." I bade Excelsior good bye and ran into the house to begin working on something I initially never considered to be worth presenting in class, I did want to keep this as a proper mask for Arachnid but right now Kumo needed it more.

The next day, in the training rooms under Academy X, as the last of the student presented their home build tech to be demonstrated before the class, Doctor McCoy turned to me. "Well then, Mister Hisashi, do you have something to present or do you need more time to build something?"

I looked over to Max whose demeanor toward me seemed to change since we had lunch with his friends yesterday, rather than appearing cold he seemed almost sympathetic, but I wasn't too worried. "Yes, sir, I have something. I didn't want to present anything half baked so I didn't present yesterday, but now it's complete." Reaching into my bag, I drew out a ski mask covered in small segmented hard plastic red squares, the eyeholes covered by a pair of wide eyed white goggles.

"By all means, Mister Hisashi, proceed", Dr. McCoy said with mild interest as he stepped back with his students. Now all eyes were on me.

"I call this, the Sixth Sense." Taking a deep breath, I pulled the mask on, feeling the segmented armor pieces clicking into place as the mask was pulled taut around my head. Pressing one of the segments on my neck, I heard the sensors inside activate. It was the moment of truth as I turned my back on the crowd "throw something at me, but don't tell me when." I stood with my hands folded behind my back as I waited, I didn't have to wait long before a sensor projected a small video feed in the corner of my goggles and showed a tennis ball fly directly at the camera. A small tilt to my head and the ball passed by me completely. The camera feed shut down and I couldn't help but smile as a murmured whisper grew from my class, test one was a success so now I just needed to up the ante, "feel free to use more than one at the same time."

This time three tennis balls were thrown, again the sensors in the mask showed three different camera feeds tracking the movements of the three balls, they were as easy to dodge as if I told the class when to throw them. Ducking my head and raising one of my legs, I dodged both tennis balls, keeping my head turned away I swung my arm out and caught the third ball in my hand which earned me a small round of applause from my class, including Doctor McCoy.

"I was under the impression you were Quirkless, Mister Hisashi", said the teacher as he approached me while I turned off the sensors in my mask and pulled it off.

"I am, but with this mask you'd think I had a foresight Quirk." I showed him the seam between the segmented squares, "between the armor there are sensors that measure air pressure, when they sense a pressure change above a certain threshold they project a 3D layout based on information from the other sensors and plot a trajectory displayed in the goggles. So no matter what you throw, from whatever angle, the wearer can see it coming and react accordingly."

Doctor McCoy smiled as he folded his arm, "and how would such technology benefit Heroes in the field?" I felt like he knew how the mask could be applied to Heroes in the field better than I could, but I think he enjoyed listening to his students try to 'sell' their inventions.

"Well, almost all kinds of situations could benefit from Sixth Sense," it dawned on me how awesome of a sales pitch that sounded. "Combat situations when Heroes are going into battle and are outnumbered by Villains, a single Hero would be able to hold their own against multiple Villains while either stalling the Villains from completing their objective or staying alive long enough for backup to arrive. Search and Rescue situations, a Hero could sense when a disaster zone is unstable or safe to enter, or if a victim is in the disaster zone or not and thus prevent Heroes from staying in danger unnecessarily."

"Anyone could benefit from Sixth Sense, just like you said." Doctor McCoy gave me another small applause and firm handshake, "well done, Mister Hisashi. Keep up this quality of work, and I can't wait to see what else you can make in my class."

Looking around, I saw the genuine admiration of my classmates, newly attending like myself and those who were attending before me, even Max seemed impressed with my work and sales pitch. It may have been a rocky start, but after this demonstration I finally felt myself fitting in. "I can't wait to see what I can build either, sir."


End file.
